Due to the changing consumer perspectives across the world, sustainability is rapidly becoming a necessity in the business world. To give you an idea, about 66 percent of consumers don’t mind spending more on a product or service provided it is offered by a sustainable brand.
Unfortunately, while a whopping 90 percent of corporations regard sustainability as a crucial part of business, only three-fifths of them have a sustainability strategy in place. This article presents tips on how businesses can become more sustainable by 2025.
1. Setting Sustainability Goals
The first step towards building a sustainable business is to set clear goals. More specifically, business management should discuss and document what they intend to achieve by 2025 concerning sustainability. Examples of sustainability goals include, among others, waste reduction, the adoption of clean energy, environmental conservation, and a healthy workforce.
The right goals not only provide a sense of direction in the quest for sustainability but also motivate stakeholders. Take note that since 2025 is not so far away, every sustainability goal set should be achievable within the remaining time frame. Therefore, setting feasible objectives is important.
2. Partnering With Other Businesses
Sustainability is a global initiative, and hence, everyone has a role to play towards its achievement. Therefore, it makes sense to say that businesses can support each other through partnerships to achieve sustainability faster, especially because it is not a cheap affair. For instance, businesses need a lot of resources to become sustainable, something that can be hard to achieve without external support.
Through partnerships, businesses can share resources amongst themselves as well as support small businesses in their sustainability initiatives. For instance, a business that specializes in providing green energy can supply its products and services to other businesses at a lower yet profitable price.
3. Implementing Wellness Programs
Social sustainability is equally important in business as it contributes a great deal towards environmental and economic sustainability. Keeping this in mind, businesses should implement wellness programs aimed at promoting good health at the workplace.
Common workplace wellness programs include yoga classes, massage therapy, on-site fitness centers, healthy food, and employee support programs. “Yoga and meditation are all you need to ignite your best life and open into your full potential on and off the mat,” says Brett Larkin, the founder and CEO of Uplifted Yoga. It is worth noting that wellness is not just good for employees’ health but also for the journey towards sustainability.
4. Adopting Clean Energy
The global sustainability goal is to achieve zero carbon emission by 2050. Since carbon emission emanates from daily activities, every business should take individual initiative to reduce the carbon footprint. One great way to achieve this is by adopting clean energy. This involves using renewable and efficient heating and lighting energies such as solar, wind, bioenergy, geothermal, and hydropower. For instance, by installing solar panels at the premises, an entrepreneur can harness solar energy and use it in their daily activities to reduce pollution.
5. Educating Staff on Healthy Living
Apart from workplace wellness programs, employees should also take personal initiative to live healthy away from work. This can be in ways such as eating healthy foods at home, biking or walking to work, exercising, and taking care of their mental health. In an interview, Michael Dean, the co-founder of Pool Research said, “Exercise is a basic necessity for everyone looking to improve their lives in every aspect, and swimming remains among the best exercises ever invented.” Therefore, to achieve sustainability, healthy living should be regarded highly by business stakeholders.
6. Creating a Healthy Working Environment
A peaceful working environment can greatly contribute towards enhancing collaboration, collegiality, and productivity at the workplace. This, in turn, helps promote social and economic sustainability in businesses. “A good company should treat every employee with the utmost respect, and never let anyone feel alone, down, or unwanted,” said Eric Mills, the Own/CEO of Pro Support Accessories, in a recent interview. Valuing employees motivates them to work hard to attain the organization’s goals, which include attaining sustainability.
7. Supporting Sustainable Innovation
Businesses should be open to modifying their products and services to suit their sustainability objectives. For instance, instead of packaging products in plastic materials, they can adopt biodegradable materials such as wood and paper. This will help reduce the quantity of plastic dumped in landfills.
Sustainable innovation also involves changing policies, procedures, and operations to promote environmental conservation and sustainability. For instance, creating a policy that bans smoking at the workplace can help maintain a clean working environment, improve productivity, and promote good health amongst employees.
8. Revisiting Waste Management
Only about 9 percent of plastic is recycled. The rest ends up in landfills. Unfortunately, the plastic in the landfills ends up in soil and water bodies, contaminating the environment and affecting every living organism along the food chain. Therefore, it is prudent for a business to manage their waste properly to avoid dumping plastics and other non-biodegradable materials in landfills.
Sustainable waste management strategies include, among others, reusing, recycling, biological treatment, and reducing waste. For instance, businesses can reduce their packaging to reduce their wastes and make disposal easier and sustainable.
Also Read: Business Waste Management – What Your Business Can Do Better
9. Learning From Competitors
Most businesses have now embraced sustainability, and are formulating strategies of promoting it in their operations. This means that you can learn what other businesses are doing and incorporate them in your strategies if they tally with your business core values and culture. For instance, if you’re looking for ideas for implementing wellness programs in your business, you can look at what your competitors have achieved so far and adopt their strategies.
10. Reviewing Performance
With time, every business should be able to identify what is working and what is not. There is no harm in abolishing policies and practices that don’t help promote sustainability and implementing those that do. For example, if employees don’t seem satisfied with the new rules and regulations at the workplace, it is always a good idea to hold meetings and find ways of improving or adapting to the new policies. In short, review the sustainability strategies regularly for improvement purposes.
The Bottom Line
Sustainability is the new strategy for business growth and development. Therefore, businesses should use these tips to achieve sustainability. When used correctly, these tips can help businesses become more sustainable by 2025.
